With so many of the first round series in the NBA this year being busts, it is the defending champion San Antonio Spurs and the hyper talented Los Angeles Clippers who are trying their best to keep the early days of the playoffs relevant.
After taking Game 1 of the series the Clippers found themselves in a dangerous spot on Sunday afternoon. The Spurs had rattled off consecutive wins, firstly with an overtime victory which was improbable considering that San Antonio was without its starting back court for the extra period. This was then followed up with a dominating Game 3 win in which newly crowned Defensive Player of the Year Kawhi Leonard exploded offensively with a 32 point performance as part of a 100-73 Spurs victory.
Simply put, the Clippers had to respond on Sunday to tie the series at 2-2, because at 3-1 down to San Antonio your playoff run is as good as over.
This Clippers team however is not the same one of years past and respond they did. Los Angeles got monster performances from its two best players, Chris Paul went for 34 points and seven assists, while Blake Griffin contributed 20 points and 19 assists playing a game high 43 minutes. Now, with the series tied at 2-2 both squads have everything to play for and every reason to believe that they can find the formula to win two of the next three games and advance as the most battle hardened team in this year’s playoffs.
The difference between this series and the others in this ugly first round is simple. These are two teams who have the talent to be competing for the NBA Title this year who just got unlucky enough to draw each other in the first round. no matter which team wins this series, and as of right now it is anyone’s guess who it will be, it would not be any kind of shock to see that team make a run from this point forward and be part of the NBA Finals Series.
When two teams this good play each other there was no way the series was going to be noncompetitive. It is so hard to tell who has the momentum, because the games seem to ebb and flow on a nightly basis in a way you don’t often see with playoff series like this. On Friday night it seemed for all money that the Spurs had everything going right and that they would be able to push on from their 2-1 lead. Instead in the space of 48 hours they found a way to go from conceding 73 points to letting in 114 points.
The greatest thing about this series so far is that it is making the stars step up. In Game 2 it was Tim Duncan who rolled back the years just three days before his 39th birthday and at an age where most NBA big men have lost their ability to contribute in the biggest moments. Duncan, who played with five fouls from the last eight minutes onward, took over the game in over time (after an admittedly awful fourth quarter) scoring 28 points and willing his team to victory. The next night it was Leonard going off for San Antonio and then the Clippers big guns flexing their muscles on Sunday in a game which was as close to must win as it could be at 2-1 in the series.
The big question now then is who will make the difference in a Game 5 which is bound to be fraught with tension and nerves. Going ahead 3-2 at this stage is going to be crucial and both teams will need their big players to keep playing at a high level. The Spurs aging core needs another huge game from the evergreen Duncan, but they also need Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili to find their games from six or seven years ago for just one day. The Clippers meanwhile need Paul and Griffin to do their thing, but they also need sixth-man extraordinaire Jamal Crawford to find his game for the first time in this series.
In a series where the stars shine so brightly, the under card can easily be forgotten. While Paul and Griffin took over for the Clippers in Game 4, it stand out in the box score that reserve guard Austin Rivers scored 16 points on 7-8 from the field. The Clippers have been waiting for Rivers to step up with this kind of performance and if he can replicate it the rest of the way then L.A. are going to be very difficult to beat.
This series will obviously have to go to six games at this point and it wouldn’t be a shock to see it go the full seven. The Clippers and the Spurs are putting on intriguing contests every other night of the week and the games will only get better as we get closer to seeing who will move on to the second round of the playoffs.